Seahawks sign Evans, 32; waive Helfet, Cottom

The Seahawks Saturday added G Jahri Evans, a six-time Pro Bowler with the Saints, to help the inexperienced offensive line. They also waived five players as injured and added five players.

Jahri Evans was a six-time Pro Bowl slection in New Orleans. / bigeasybeliever.com

The Seahawks Saturday signed Jahri Evans, a six-time Pro Bowl guard with New Orleans, to bolster their inexperienced offensive line, while waiving as injured five players, including veteran TE Cooper Helfet and likely starting FB Brandon Cottom.

Evans, who was a free agent after refusing to accept a pay cut in February from the Saints, his team of 10 years, came in Friday for a workout. He turns 33 Aug. 22.

The Seahawks have penciled in well-thought-of guards, second-year Mark Glowinski and rookie first-round pick Germain Ifedi, to fill the starting spots. But it’s possible that Ifedi could be moved to tackle, where he played in college, if J’Marcus Webb, a veteran free agent signing who missed spring workouts with injury, doesn’t pan out.

“It’s been talked about but it’s surely not a serious thought right now,” assistant coach Tom Cable said Saturday about possibly moving Ifedi. “The biggest issue is getting him settled and obviously he’s doing really well, so I don’t know if you want to mess with that.”

Evans missed five games last season with injury, but if healthy, will provide more NFL experience than the combined projected starting five. OL Kona Schwenke was waived to make roster room.

Cottom apparently injured his Achilles tendon during practice Thursday. Helfet, who as the No. 3 tight end played in 24 games the past two seasons and had four starts, broke a bone in his foot at the beginning of training camp.

Also cut were TE Ronnie Shields, RB Tre Madden and DE David Perkins. If the injured players pass through waivers, they can be placed on the Seahawks’ injured reserve list.

The Seahawks also added five players to the 90-man roster, including FB Jonathan Amosa from the University of Washington, a former walk-on from Rainier Beach High School who played linebacker as well as fullback. He will compete with another former Husky, Tani Tupou, in the absence of Cottom.

A linebacker from Washington State, Kache Palacio, was signed, as was RB Troymaine Pope of Jackson State, WR Uzoma Nwachukwu of Texas A&M and TE Joe Sommers of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

YourThoughts

jafabian

The Saints are cutting loose all their high salaried players due to their poor salary management. If only they’d let go of Unger. Sad to see Helfet go, he’s been a great contributor. The team largely puts the team first and if you can’t play they won’t pay whereas in the past they might try to hold onto the player despite the injury. Not under the Schneider/Carroll watch.

Eric K

Most likely he clears waivers and they can sign him to IR

art thiel

Helfet is likely to be back once he heals, presuming a TE/special teams need.

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